Only Human
by Bitter Shadow
Summary: Acceptance of one another no matter what. They're closer than brothers. But even brothers make mistakes. Kai says something he shouldn't have and has to make it better. Disclaimer; I don't own the song Only Human or Ninjago, they belong to their respectful owners. Kind of Zane focused because I love him


"And then I was all like WAH!" Jay demonstrated a karate chop to the group. "And they didn't even know what hit them!"

Cole laughed and lightly punched his arm. "Dude, you were not. I was the one who led us to this glorious victory." Kai tried to wave off the other two, standing up as well.

"Please, if it weren't for my fire, we wouldn't have been able to close the cave!"

Cole gave him a push. "If it weren't for your fire, we wouldn't have had to close the cave!"

"Um..." Zane started quietly. Jay shoved Cole.

"I think we were all important," Jay calmed them both, but then added with a smirk, "but I was the most important!" Cries of "were not!" were exclaimed and the three started fighting.

"Uh, excuse me..." Zane bit his lip, watching the mess of ninjas. He sighed, knowing he wasn't going to get any words in. Nya came back to the fire to see a tangled fight of ninjas and one sitting silently. She groaned. She had just left to tell Sensei Wu they were safe and the mission was a success, and already they were fighting.

"ENOUGH!" She roared and they stopped mid attack, Cole with a fistful of Kai's hair, both of them on top of Jay. They all let each other go and stood back up, awkwardly murmuring apologies.

Nya pushed back her bangs from her forehead and closed her eyes. "You guys are such a pain. You're lucky I'm not going to tell Sensei about your pointless fighting."

"But sis," Kai complained. "They were saying cocky stuff, and Sensei tells us not to. I was just reminding them that."

Jay elbowed Kai. "Liar! You were being just as cocky as us!"

"Yeah!" Cole joined in, Kai quickly sitting back down in surrender.

Nya sat down next to her hotheaded brother. "Zane is the only one of you sensible enough to be left alone for a minute." Zane blinked as all eyes turned to him. Their expressions went serious and curious, a sort of unspoken respect they had for Zane.

"Uh, guys..." he tried again, now that he had their attention.

Cole and Jay sat down, elbowing each other a bit. Cold tried to act like a mature leader and responded to Zane. "What's up?"

"Well, it's just..." Zane watched sparks fly out of the campfire and took a deep breath.

"I do not think it is right for us to kill our enemies."

Everyone fell still, but it was quickly broken by nervous laughter. Everyone took turns patting Zane on the back assuringly, even though they didn't know what to say.

"Come on, Zane, don't be like that," Jay fidgeted, his laughter a bit forced. "They're the bad guys! It's okay for the heroes to destroy them!"

Cole smacked Jay upside the head. "Idiot. Don't say killing's okay when you aren't even willing to say the word. 'Destroy?' Really? What are you, five?"

Kai turned his eyes away from everyone, keeping up his smile. "Jay's right in a way though. I wouldn't worry about it Zane. And after all, they're just robots, it's not like they had feelings or anything."

Kai regretted the words the moment they slipped out of his mouth. He looked back at the white ninja with wide eyes. The laughing stopped and so did the fidgeting. Even the fire seemed to die down with his words. All eyes were on Kai except for two shocked blue ones.

"Dude..." Jay whispered.

"I-I didn't mean it like that!" Kai had to fix this, quick. "I-I swear, it's just...y'know, you're different! They're all just-"

"No," Zane cut him off. The focus was back on him. "It's okay. You merely said what you believed. If you'll excuse me everyone, I think I will call it an early night." Zane stood up and no one had the will to stop him. He walked back over the hill to where their temporary base lay hidden.

"Dude..." Jay stated again, unsure of what to say.

"Come on guys, you know I didn't mean it like that! I was just-!"

Cole stood up, shaking his head disdainfully. "Save it. You better fix this, Kai. We can fight and insult each other, but there are certain lines you don't cross. That's what makes us a team. That's what makes us brothers. And until you can figure that out..." he trailed off, then marched off with a barely suppressed rage in a random direction.

Jay took Nya's hand, giving it a squeeze. He mouthed an 'it's okay' to try and comfort her.

Kai hurried to the makeshift base. It didn't really deserve to be called a base. It was a hole in the side of the hill. There were three almost rooms, the control room, the room for the ninjas and Nya's room.

He entered the big space that stood as the boys' room. There were four sleeping bags and random things strewn about. Facing away from him, Zane lay on his side. Kai approached slowly.

"Uh, hey man..." Kai scratched the back of his neck. He waited for a response.

"Hey." Zane said with the same emotionless tone he used to use. Kai cringed a bit and sat down.

"Sooo..." Kai tried to voice his thoughts into words. He sighed, giving up. "Listen. What I said back there...you know like I do those evil ninjdroids only serve the Overlord. You're so different from that...you can see why for a moment I forgot."

"Hnn" This was a soft sound the team was used to that Zane made when trying to process a lot of information at once. Zane was embarrassed to know he was making it subconsciously, but Kai liked it. It was rather...comforting.

"I forgot you were not human because you're so human. No, you are human. I couldn't even compare you in my mind to those guys."

Zane rolled over to face Kai with the same curiosity that was always alive in his eyes. Kai nodded, offering a small off-centered smile. "It was really stupid of me, I know. But I hope you can forgive me."

"Of course." Zane pulled the relieved ninja into a tight embrace. Zane wasn't good at expressing his emotions but the hug made Kai feel how scared he was. He wasn't offended or angry but terrified that his brothers had stopped loving him.

Kai gave a lighthearted chuckle and hugged him back. "I told you, remember? I don't care what makes you work, whether it's blood, or gears, or in Jay's case, stupidity," He got an airy laugh for that one. "You will always be family."

Zane clenched the back of Kai's shirt as he continued. "I wouldn't lie about something like that. I hate machines, y'know? But you're not just a machine. You're not even a machine in my eyes."

Kai swore if ninjdroids could cry, his shirt would be soaked right now.

"Thank you..." Zane closed his eyes and smiled. "Thank you. Ever since..." He pulled away a bit and touched Kai's chest gently. Kai blinked in surprise but let him. "Ever since I could feel the heart in all of your chests..." He brushed his fingers along his own chest, tracing out the shape of a heart that wasn't there. "but not in mine...I've been concerned..."

Kai shook his head, his own eyes brimming with tears. "No, don't be. Zane you seem real smart but right now you're almost as dumb as Jay. Something as insignificant as that wouldn't make us hate you. I mean, Cole's dad is a dancer!"

"Right." Zane stood. "Let us go back to the others and apologize for keeping them waiting."

"Okay, sure." Kai grinned and wrapped his arm around Zane's slim shoulders, giving him another squeeze.

He thought Sensei Wu would totally be proud of him. After all, he just taught himself an important lesson. It doesn't matter where you come from, or what's inside you.

For the bonds you make will be stronger than anything.

* * *

**A/N: **Wow! I'm so mean to poor Zane but that's because he's my favorite. I felt it was very important in the show that Kai was the first one to speak up and say heaccepted Zane no matter what they learned the truth about Zane, considering how much he hates machines.

And that 'life lesson' Kai thought up at the end may be me giving a pointed glare at Wu and Misako for not trying hard enough to accept Garmadon even with the evil in his veins.

If you guys want more, I'll write some more. This was just going to be a short story but I love Ninjago too much haha. Thanks for reading!


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